Afternoon briefing Wednesday 16th September

0:00This episode of the Times Radio News Briefing is sponsored by PwCWC. Staying competitive means getting ahead, not just keeping up. So how do business leaders cut through the noise and focus on what really matters? PwC takes you further with tech, from optimising the systems that put your data to work, to scaling AI from proof of concept to competitive edge. PwC helps you meet tomorrow's tech demands so you can compete at a speed that rewrites the rules. Discover more at pwc.co.uk. This is your Times Radio news briefing for the afternoon of Wednesday the 16th of September. The EU has opened the door to Canada being its first associate member.

0:44Canadian and EU officials had floated the concept in recent weeks, with Prime Minister Mark Carney saying he was seeking a unique alliance with the bloc. The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has been delivering her State of the Union speech in Strasbourg. In short, we want to bring the relationship with Canada to the highest level possible. And dear Mark, I said we must urgently reimagine our partnerships. So I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to being the first associate member of the European Union. She also said this is not a partnership against anyone else, but for our common strength.

1:29Donald Trump's trade war against the EU and Canada and his attitude towards NATO have spurred efforts by Western democracies to work more closely together. Inflation has increased to 3.1%, with communication and education-related costs being higher than 5%. That's the amount prices have increased by in the year until August. Transport and restaurants saw the next most significant increases, The Times' business editor Richard Fletcher says it's down to global circumstances. So this still very much looks like an energy shock rather than a renewed domestic inflation problem. Obviously, the worry for the bank will be whether this does eventually feed through into general inflation and that obviously becomes sticky and people demand wage rises to compensate for that.

2:17But actually, I think these numbers are pretty good news given the circumstances. Hundreds of volunteers have turned up at a hall in Suffolk to help search for a three-year-old boy who hasn't been seen since he was in a playground with a relative yesterday. Noah is non-verbal, autistic and partially deaf. The police is asking for locals in Brantham to check their dashcam or doorbell camera footage. Villagers in Piddington in Oxfordshire have voted in principle to leave the UK in a symbolic referendum. Residents have been protesting against plans to house 1 ,200 male asylum seekers in a military base next to their 350-person village.

2:53Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy suggested on Times Radio that areas like this will have to put up with it, suggesting it was their time to bear the burden. Working-class communities like mine, we've had to put up with asylum hotels being opened overnight, two in the same village in my constituency. At the same time, we've had companies like Serco buying up or renting properties for asylum accommodation. Four copies of Earl Spencer's book about his sister, Princess Diana, have been stolen from a lorry in the Netherlands while the driver slept. The truck was carrying thousands of copies when it was broken into in a rural lay-by.

3:32The books were wrapped in black plastic to disguise their contents, according to the Daily Mail. For more stories like this, listen throughout the day to Times Radio.

3:44This episode of the Times Radio News Briefing is sponsored by PwC. AI is everywhere. In the news, in our hands, but return on investment, not so much. So how do you get beyond the hype and deliver AI that powers reinvention and growth across your business? Strong foundations unlock AI's potential. That's why PwC takes you further with tech, strengthening the data quality, processes and workflows that shape how well AI performs. PwC turns innovation into implementation so you can accelerate from experiment to scale. Discover more at pwc.co.uk.

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